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Last weekend the SWISSMAN Xtreme Triathlon 2014 took place for the second time in the beautiful Swiss Alps. In the early Saturday morning 239 athletes started into one of their biggest adventures and became a part of one of the hardest long distance triathlons worldwide. Luckily the weather was very fine and much better than last year at the first edition when the athletes had to get along with the rain and low temperatures. The competition lasted until the next day 00:50 am when the last athlete reached the finish at the kleine Scheidegg. Last years winner Markus Stierli was also there and cheered to all finishers, his track record was not beaten.

Our camera team was also there to get some footage of the event. We will publish a new film about the competition very soon. Check out our image gallery for some nice impressions of the race and the official SWISSMAN 2014 video teaser.

We already published a preview and a race report about this great event. Now here is the official video about the race for you, it needs no words more to be explained. What else does it need to get to know yourself?

Last weekend SWISSMAN Xtreme Triathlon 2013 winner Markus Stierli added another big success to his sports career: he won the 11th edition of the Isklar Norseman Xtreme Triathlon at the top of the Norwegian mountain Gaustatoppen. He finished the race in 11:25:16h and could leave his competitors behind him. All athletes had to fight with the special Norwegian elements: fog, headwind and rain made the race even harder.

The Norseman is like the SWISSMAN a very special race because of the difficult track with climbs, the finish at a steep mountain and the uncomfortable weather. The winner, X-BIONIC® athlete Markus Stierli, mentioned after the race: “The Isklar Norseman was the perfect race for me . Wet, cold and lots of wind” – Congratulations Markus!

The Isklar Norseman Xtreme Triathlon 10th anniversary film

Links

SWISSMAN is a unique triathlon adventure over the Ironman distance with a total ascent of 5200 m. The journey begins in southern ambience at the lowest point of Switzerland at 196 m above sea level, crosses the Alps with three major hills and reaches its summit with the stunning scenery at the finish line just below the top of Europe at 2061 m. In June 2013 the first edition of the race started with 50 competitors. We gathered some videos that show the location and athletes before, during and after the triathlon:

A great weekend full of an extreme kind of triathlon in the Swiss mountains is over: The SWISSMAN Xtreme Triathlon 2013 became history and a remarkably competition for the race calendars in the next years.

The swim stage started offshore at 5:08 am

50 athletes started at 5:08 am in the early Saturday morning near Ascona to the first SWISSMAN ever. 3,8 km swimming, 180 km cycling and 42 km running at the extreme race course had to be completed by all competitors. The last one of finally 44 finishers arrived after nearly 18 hours hard fighting with the elements after midnight. Not only the stiff ascents at the bike and run part but also the weather conditions made the race even harder: Rain and windy conditions turned the competition into an epic effort. The temperatures were below 5 degrees at the highest points of the bike part Gotthard and Furka, this made the downhill session down from there very difficult. Three athletes did not finish the race due to these difficulties and stopped at the bike course, three more competitors had to abandon their race at the final run part.

X-BIONIC® supported six athletes with full race equip and the whole event as official partner. Every finisher also got an X-BIONIC® finisher shirt for the race. Finally the winners of the male and female category were one of these equipped athletes: Markus Stierli (CH) and Emma Pooley (GB) showed an outstanding performance at the hard course and won the race in their category. Emma just finished as 6th overall only 50 minutes behind Markus, what a great effort! Check out the first three athletes of the main categories men/women:

The last finisher arrived at the Kleine Scheidegg after midnight and got a warm welcome too. All athletes could perform quite safely and had no traffic or organizational problems during the whole race. The full result table of the SWISSMAN 2013 has been published at the official SWISSMAN finisher page, where you can find all details about the race splits and finishing times. Check out the great results of all X-BIONIC® supported athletes (overall finish in brackets):

Markus Stierli 11:29h (1)

Emma Pooley 12:39h (6)

Martin Frei 14:37h (19)

Roger Sendlhofer 15:53h (27)

Mac Huber 17:02h (41)

Benjamin Müller (DNF)

Overall winner Markus Stierli

The SWISSMAN will keep alive, not only because of the perfect organisation of the race, also because the triathlon scene wishes more of such challenging events, all competitors were happy with this new and extreme triathlon. Markus Stierli, who already finished the NORSEMAN at the 2nd place, said: “It was one of the hardest triathlons I`ve ever made. The final run part nearly killed my legs. But X-BIONIC® gave me a good feeling during the whole race so I didn´t need to care about my gear, it simply worked in all conditions!”

Winner of the female category Emma Pooley

Emma Pooley, the best women finisher mentioned, that her gear was perfect for the race: “I always had a comfortably feeling with X-BIONIC®.” At the beginning of the race she was a little bit confused about her ranking: “I didn´t realize that I was the first women after the swim part, so I always asked the spectators, how many women were in front of me… I knew that the bike part would be my power discipline, so I could overtake a lot of the male athletes. Finally at the run part I knew, that the second women behind me was far enough away and I even catched up the runner in front of me, unfortunately it didn´t work but I am so happy with my 6th rank. My personal summary of the event is: A really great race, thanks to the SWISSMAN organizers! What I need for such a hard triathlon is more experience, I think I will return next time.”

Markus will keep his shape until the NORSEMAN 2013 at the 3rd of August, the inspiring event for the SWISSMAN. Emma and the second male winner, Rafael Wyss, earned a slot for the NORSEMAN 2014 because of their great results. We wish all athletes a good recreation time and good luck for their upcoming sports events. Finally enjoy our our video about the SWISSMAN Xtreme Triathlon 2013:

The Swiss TV station SRF sent a report about an editor of their own who competed at the race, check out their video(with German comments). You may also have a look at out our pictures of the race, check out our Flickr gallery.